Category: Women

The Kiss that Overshadowed Spanish Women’s Soccer History

Women’s soccer is a passion of mine and while USA is my team, even I had to admit that at this year’s FIFA Women’s World Cup Spain was a dominant force. Their team was among the best, if not the best, that I had watched in my time as a fan. I spent the cup in awe of their ability. This came at a time in which women’s sports are beginning to gain traction, more people than ever watched the NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament, the University of Nebraska’s women’s volleyball team broke the record for highest attendance at a women’s sporting event, and the World Cup itself was gaining viewership. This team was poised to make history and make history they did. In front of the eyes of the world they brought home Spain’s first ever Women’s World Cup Final victory. Unfortunately, the attention on their victory did not last.

During their celebrations, Vice President of the Royal Spanish Football Federation, Luis Rubiales kissed player Jenni Hermoso without her consent. Within the week Spanish soccer shut down. No longer were discussions of the women’s team about their victory, but instead about this kiss and the perpetrator who refuses to step down.

The public outcry has been somewhat unique compared to many incidents in women’s sports. In past instances the supporters of the women that were impacted by these events are majority women as well, especially within the realm of support from other athletes, but this time was different. Players from men’s and women’s teams across Spain made statements in open opposition to Rubiales continuing to hold his office. Athletes from both sections of Spanish soccer have pledged to refuse to play for Spain so long as Rubiales remains in office.

Are there instances that have played out in a similar manner in other settings? I’m curious if there has been similar support for a woman in this sort of situation outside of sports.

Op- Ed : Culture of Silence: Why Minority Victims of Sex Abuse Don’t Report

Why Minority Victims of Sex Abuse Don’t Report

Nashara Turrentine

 

As a black woman, I grew up in a household that values and cherishes family and holds the family name to a high standard. Things that bring the family shame were never to be discussed with the public or with friends, and anything that happened amongst the family was to be resolved and never spoken on again. I place a strong emphasis on “never spoken on again,” and less emphasis on “resolved,” because many minority women, they are the ones shamed, and forced to move forward. This is especially true for women whose perpetrators are their older, male family members. Sometimes, the issue is simply brushed to the side, and their abusers are allowed to continue coming around. The reasoning behind this is not as simple as saying that families just don’t want to deal with the assaults. The importance of upholding the family name is incredibly prevalent amongst most minority families, and family shame, honor, and stigma are listed as some of the cultural reasons that there are barriers to women and children reporting their sexual abuse and abusers. The reputation of one’s family or that community is nine times out of ten placed at the forefront of the issue as opposed to bringing shame to the abuser, which seems like it would have the opposite effect in my opinion. I would much rather be slightly embarrassed that there is one single abuser in my family and be known for excommunicating them from the family than let people find out that not only did we enable the abuse, but we kept the abuser around after finding out they did anything to harm someone that I loved. I personally think your family name is soiled once people find out you are enabling something as disgusting as sexual assault or any kind of abuse. There are also many deeply ingrained stigmas and stereotypes pushed onto minority communities that hold plenty of women back from reporting their abuse. For example, black women are stereotyped as “fast,” and are apparently more likely to consent to sexual activity at a young age than others. First of all, you cannot consent to anything as a child. Secondly, I believe a lot of the black community is responsible for enabling and continuing on this idea that young black girls are “fast,” or “too grown.” Black mothers are very quick to tell their sons to “stay away from them fast little girls.” Why are you, as a black woman, helping perpetuate the idea that black women need less protection from predators and are more sexually advanced than their white peers? I can’t write this without bringing up the ever so famous “go cover-up, family is coming over.” When has it ever been okay to feel like your child needs to cover up their legs or midsection because their own male family is on the way to spend time with them? It’s not okay, but it is genuinely ingrained in the black community. If I move away from the black household and focus on the Middle Eastern or Asian household, especially the more traditional families, many women are deemed unworthy of marriage after sexual assault, as virginity is a virtue and sometimes, a requirement of marriage for these cultures.

 

Moving away from the subject household and into the issue of legal power being no help, many minorities are reluctant to report because they fear a lack of response, belief, or help. Many minority women, especially black women, already struggle with the criminal justice system as is. To report something as traumatizing as sexual assault or abuse takes a large dose of courage, and minorities historically already do not trust the legal system because truthfully, it was not built to protect or help them, and can sometimes work against them. 44% of white sexual abuse victims report their abuse while only 17% of black victims report the same abuse. Not only is there the lack of concern for black and minority victims, there’s also the issue of women of color being more likely to have their children taken away due to lack of protection if their child reports sexual abuse than white parents.

 

There is very little addressed as ways to create a solution to the problems we as minority women face when it comes to sexual abuse, and it seems to me like we have to work our way from the inside out. We need to address our internal issues and understand them. I won’t say we need to do that before the issues can be resolved on the outside but there are a lot of issues we have within our cultures that genuinely need to be addressed and fixed so that we do not perpetuate these issues any further.

 

Culture of Silence: Why Minority Victims of Sex Abuse Don’t Report

 

 

OP-ED Black Women and Indigenous Women: Intimate Partner Violence Highlighted

https://ujimacommunity.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/Intimate-Partner-Violence-IPV-v9.4.pdf

 

Black and Indigenous women are the most prone to getting sexually assaulted compared to white women. This was one of the facts in the article below entitled “Intimate Partner Violence in the Black Community”. Even though this article specifically talks about black women in dangerous homes with their significant others, they do speak of women of hispanic, Caribbean, and native descent. in my following blog, I will be expanding on these two races of women to see how they are among the targeted when it comes to intimate partner violence.

“According to the CDC, Black and American/Indian Alaska Native Women experienced the highest rates of homicide (4.4 and 4.3 per 100,000 population) and over half of all homicides (55%) were related to IPV”. In that excerpt from the article, it just shows that black/native women have been the survivors in a feud of the aggressor. Within our class, we talk about how black women are stereotyped to be the ones that are “smarter” than other races of women when it comes to IPV. Within this article, this proves the theory wrong, showing that as black women we need a lot more help when getting out of those environments than people may think. Rape, stalking and even more in this article shows that black women have been viewed as just objects to objectify and scorn. Within the subject of rape the statistics in the article state that nationally, 9% of black women were raped by an intimate partner during their lifetime. This fact shows that within the rape community, it is usually a person that women know that will rape them versus a stranger that they just met.

In closing, another discussion that we have had in class is about IPV with black women being arrested for self defense from their partner. That discussion has definitely stuck with me considering I know a number of black women that are jailed for life without parole for a defense act against their perpetrator. I guess the question that really sticks in my head is when will their every be justice for the black woman when defending themselves against their aggressor? What actions will be in consideration for those that may have children at home? The reason for the last question is that a lot of black women go to jail for self defense against their partner and they have a child at home to take care of. If the mother is arrested, I feel like their should be more options for those mothers that don’t have any family members to take care of their children. Instead of putting the kids in the system they may can make a IPV child system where the women that dealt with that and are imprisoned have some sort of guarantee that if they can get out of jail, they will be able to get their child out the system without all the extra baggage that comes with it.

 

A woman’s risk for going to college.

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Today, there is a lot of talk about sexual harassment but on a college campus, but surprisingly there is more of a risk for college aged students that don’t attend college. This article goes into the statistics-based parts explaining that “female college-aged students (18-24) are 20% less likely than non-students of the same age to be a victim of rape or sexual assault.” That sentence threw me for a loop because all my life I’ve been taught that college is the most dangerous place for a young girl, but along with the danger of being taken advantage of, there’s the danger of being robbed. College women are twice as likely to be sexually assaulted than robbed, but non college women experience 5 robberies for every 4 sexual assaults. The saddest fact is that only 20% of women that are students report to law enforcement. Some of these assaults stem from stalking which 5.8% of students have experienced since going to college. There need to be more done for women and not just students so that we can live in a safe place and not fear that a man is going to come out of the dark and attack us in anyway. Women deserve to be safe and not afraid to go out in fear of being taken advantage of or robbed, hopefully things will change in the world, and it will become safe for us.

https://www.rainn.org/statistics/campus-sexual-violence

The Sandra Bland Story: Expanding on Black Femicide

https://communityimpact.com/houston/katy/public-safety/2020/07/23/experts-reflect-5-years-after-sandra-blands-death-in-waller-county-jail/

As of recently, Breonna Taylor is one of the many women, black women, that have been wrongfully murdered in the spread of police brutality. They are all taunting stories to hear about these black women dying in vain because they may “match the description” of someone that they are looking for. One woman that I cannot still get over is Sandra Bland.

 

Even though a lot of different sites state that Bland was found hanging in her cell to look like it was done willingly by herself, to this day, it still seems like foreplay was done in her death. By the way her locs were placed in the picture, also to the way her eyes looked so lifeless in the picture it looked a little “staged”. Since her passing, they have released the Sandra Bland Act in 2017, calling to ban police officers from stopping drivers on traffic charges to link to other crimes.

 

Though this act was released, I still feel that as myself being a black woman, I am still distraught and fearful of traffic stops as I’m traveling on the road. Hopefully as a society we can end this target on black women and men and realize we are stronger together, all races, then apart.

Blog Post on “Prosecutors recommend probation for Breonna Taylor’s ex-boyfriend”

This article is about how prosecutors are recommending 8 years of probation for Jamarcus Glover, the ex-boyfriend of Breonna Taylor, upon him pleading guilty. Also, Glover’s items that were confiscated by police must remain in police care and he can move out of state as covered in the plea deal. Glover and his partner, Adrian Orlandes Walker, were in a drug-dealing ring in Lousiville. Glover used to be the on-again-off-again boyfriend of Breonna Taylor but their relationship ended before Glover’s drug crime. Glover was the reason why Breonna Taylor’s home was raided by Lousiville police because police assumed he would be there or drugs would be there. Louisville Police didn’t announce that they were the police when they used a battering ram to enter Taylor’s apartment. Taylor and then-boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, (no connection with the other Walker mentioned in this blog post) were woken up by it and Walker fired his gun at police thinking that it was an intruder. Walker shot a police officer in the leg which caused the police to fire back which then resulted in Breonna Taylor’s death. In the article, it states that Breonna’s family thinks that the level of force the Louisville police was unnecessary seeing as Glover was a “low-level offender”.

I choose this article for my blog post because today in class we went over the Gabby Pepito case and its impact on the media. We also went over “white girl syndrome” and the manhunt for the “missing bride”. We also went over the “Say Her Name” campaign. Breonna Taylor’s story is documented in the “Say Her Name: Breonna Taylor 20/20” series on ABC News. Breonna Taylor has brought about discussions on the issue of protecting black women as highlighted by celebrities such as Megan Thee Stallion. Breonna Taylor has also been at the forefront of the issue of police brutality against people of color. The article, states that no officers out of the six were arrested in this case but in January two officers were fired. Breonna Taylor’s family was able to ban “No-knock warrants” in Louisville and requires Louisville police to wear body cameras.

 

Breonna Taylor (26 yr old EMT)          Jamacrus Glover

Breonna Taylor, 26, Was A Hard Worker Who Loved Her Family      Jamarcus Glover, from Breonna Taylor case, booked in jail

 

Sources:

(article referenced in this blog post):  https://www.npr.org/2021/10/19/1047417361/breonna-taylor-ex-boyfriend-jamarcus-glover-plea-deal

more articles on this topic:

https://www.nytimes.com/article/breonna-taylor-police.html

(“Say Her Name: Breonna Taylor 20/20” series on ABC News) video on the topic:

A Sociogenic Epidemic

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Tourette’s Syndrome is a neurological tic disorder characterized by unwanted involuntary motor movements and/or repetitive speech patterns. The rise of Tik Tok over the pandemic saw numerous subgroups of individuals and advocates group together to form various niche communities on the social networking app. One such disability advocacy community being the Tourette’s Community, fighting stigma and connecting with other ‘Tic Tokers’ on the app. Many advocates raise awareness for their neurological condition by being vulnerable and sharing stories of a day in their life with tics, educating others on the disorder, humanizing those with the condition, and creating a support system for those impacted by the disorder. One such Tik Tok Tourette’s Star being Evie Meg, who has a book coming out about her syndrome called My Nonidentical Twin on October 28th.


However, some worry that the rise of Tourette’s Tik Tok has contributed to the increased diagnoses of teen girls with Tourette’s syndrome. There has been a recent increase in patients reporting to doctors with tics over the pandemic, particularly in teen girls, many of whom suffered from other mental illnesses such as anxiety or depression, and found themselves on the mental health community of tik tok, eventually being exposed to the Tourette’s TikTok community as well. Most Tourette’s patients first present symptoms of a tic disorder between the ages of 5 and 10, but these teen girls have no previous history of tics, and are showing symptoms consistent with the videos and particular tics they see on TikTok, such as shouting “beans” at inappropriate times without any specific stimuli or context. These behavioral changes are indicative of a sociogenic illness, which is “spread” through social media. This does not mean that these teen girls are faking the illness in any way, however there is a distinction between Tourette’s Syndrome and this sort of functional Tourette’s-like mass sociogenic illness. This functional neurological disorder appearing among teen girls should not be taken as less serious then classic Tourette’s syndrome, but is a distinct disorder in its own right.

Dr. Caroline Olvera, a neurologist and movement disorders fellow at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, is continuing to study the rise of this sociogenic disorder among teen girls and states that “Historically, and currently, I believe that women’s medical complaints are sometimes minimized compared to men. For example, the term ‘mass sociogenic/psychogenic illness’ was previously called ‘mass hysteria,’ referring to the uterus, and thus the underlying assumption may be that this is a phenomenon only affecting women who have gone ‘crazy’ or ‘hysterical.’” Dr. Olvera emphasizes the importance of taking this condition seriously, and relates it to how medical conditions more prevalent in women have historically been downplayed or demonized.
This gender disparity in how we view and treat various medical and neurological conditions in society prevents young women from being able to be taken seriously and get the help that they need. Sociogenic illnesses need to be taken seriously and further studied no matter the demographic.

Protesters want investigation into Loudoun judge who jailed domestic violence victim

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https://www.insidenova.com/headlines/protesters-want-investigation-into-loudoun-judge-who-jailed-domestic-violence-victim/article_78f12eca-1d46-11ec-85a7-ff1c998ecc04.html

A judge, during testimony in a domestic violence case, sentenced the alleged victim of the domestic violence to 10 days in jail for smoking marijuana the morning of the trial, which was held in the afternoon. Last name Orndoff, was testifying against her current boyfriend on domestic abuse charges when the judge interrupted and asked if she was intoxicated. Orndoff admitted to smoking marijuana the morning of the trial and was immediately sentenced to 10 days in jail. Locals are not happy about this, stating that the main issue here was about the domestic abuse, not if she was smoking.

judgeprotest.jpg

It’s crazy to think that a judge, during testimony about a domestic abuse case, would simply jail the victim of the abuse based on something not even related to the case. Her smoking had nothing to do with her boyfriend abusing her and yet during this trial she was punished as a victim. I hope an investigation takes place; in my opinion, that should not have interrupted a case such as this in any way.

The Shadow Pandemic of Addiction

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We’ve heard the term “shadow pandemic” apply to many co-occurring ongoing adverse events during the COVID-19 pandemic since lockdown began in winter/spring of 2020. This term has been applied to rising rates of domestic violence, depression, suicide (especially in young teen girls), anxiety, insomnia, and other mental health issues, and the silent killer of addiction.

During a collective trauma for people predisposed to mental health or substance abuse issues, the anxiety, isolation, and sleepless nights caused by the worry of the outside world pushed many people towards substance abuse, and finding help proved extremely difficult for many, as rehabilitation centers became more expensive, more exclusive, required more sanitation and social distancing needs, and more in-demand as more people needed them.

For one pregnant North Carolina woman, the new regulations regarding social distancing at these in-patient facilities made it especially difficult for her to confront and seek treatment for her heroin addiction.

During the pandemic, alcohol consumption rose sharply as well, especially among women. A study conducted by the RAND Corporation and supported by the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism showed that heavy drinking rose by 41% during the COVID-19 pandemic in women.

Besides alcohol and other prescription medications, the use and misuse of many over the counter medications such as decongestants and sleep-aids increased during the pandemic as well.

A cheap OTC first generation antihistamine known as diphenhydramine, the active ingredient in many allergy medications such as Benadryl and sleep-aids such as Unisom, was at the center of a dangerous trend on Tik Tok known as “The Benadryl Challenge” in fall of 2020. In this challenge, users were encouraged to take extreme amounts of the substance to induce hallucinogenic effects, as when taken in high doses, it can have extreme cognitive impacts such as causing psychosis, blackouts, hallucinations, etc.. Research by the FDA showed that experimentation and abuse of these sort of cheap OTC medications increased drastically during the pandemic, especially in younger teens and adults.

 

These Tik Tok challenges did not warn users of the extreme adverse physical and mental impacts that could occur, nor did the bottles these are sold in, as they are marketed as “non-habit forming”, and can be sold as cheap sleep-aids in bottles of up to 365 pills.
The truth is, any substance has the potential to be addictive, and the bottles and ways in which diphenhydramine is marketed and sold as harmless sleep-aids are misleading and disingenuous on that account.

 

For women and all individuals readjusting to life post-pandemic (even if we’re not quite there yet), it is important that we deal with the shadow pandemic of addiction and support each other through the collective trauma we all have experienced to different degrees during the pandemic.

 

One year of lockdown: Women reveal uniquely devastating ways pandemic has ravaged their lives

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Link: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/lockdown-anniversary-women-domestic-abuse-b1819278.html

This article talks about the issues that women dealt with during, and right after of, the pandemic.

I think it sad to see that one of the main things brought up was unplanned pregnancies and a large increase in domestic abuse. It also talks about how women were more likely to lose their jobs due to their over-representation in low-paying jobs.

There was also a section which spoke about how contraception was hard to get during the pandemic and ultimately lead to an increase in abortions as well due to unwanted pregnancies.

It is also important to note that not only did domestic abuse rates and cases soar, but also stalking did as well. The publisher for the article noted that there was an 11% increase of calls to a National Stalker Helpline.

It’s crazy to me to think that, on top of the pandemic that was causing issues for everyone, women had an increase in such horrible things like abuse or stalking. It’s sad to think that they couldn’t even get to the contraceptive products they needed which resulted in an increase of unwanted pregnancies and abortion. I had no idea that the pandemic directly hit women harder than men and I’m glad I know now and hope that there is more visibility of these kids of issues when we return to normal.